Kim Richey – Wreck Your Wheels

Alt-country standby stands strong

On her sixth full-length, singer/songwriter Kim Richey crafts an album that’s appealing at first blush, and gets better each time it’s revisited. Swathed in producer Neilson Hubbard’s warm, even-handed production, Richey’s alto leads the listener through sketchy traveling shows (the bluesy “When the Circus Comes to Town”) and the dusty corners of long-shut drawers (“Keys”). Richey’s eye for lyrical detail packs emotional punch into what would otherwise be just another handful of pretty alt-country songs: “Woke up on a Sunday knowing you would leave me after all / Not today, but a long time from now,” she sings on the poignant yet instantly catchy “In the Years to Come,” and it’s tough not to believe her. She may lack the star-power of brassier contemporaries like Bonnie Raitt, but Richey’s
subdued vignettes about loss and broken love possess no shortage of enduring charm.